Infrastructure

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the fact that millions of people, especially in rural America, do not have access to broadband. In response, more than $150 billion of federal and state funding will be spent over the next five years to close the digital divide. However, a new digital divide centered around latency—the delay before a data transfer begins, exemplified by video stuttering—could emerge if rural communities lack the broadband infrastructure to provide low-latency services.

Without reliable, affordable internet, rural communities have limited economic opportunities and lack access to education, healthcare, and many other services. Broadband expansion is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, said Adrianne Furniss, director of the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society.

Today, there is no expert agency ensuring that the internet is fast, open, and fair. Since the birth of the modern internet, the Federal Communications Commission had played that role. It makes sense. These are principles that have deep origins in communications law and history. After all, back in the era when communications meant telephony, every call went through, and your phone company could not cut off your call or edit the content of your conversation.

A $580,000 Windstream public–private partnership in Throckmorton (TX) has the provider’s Kinetic gigabit fiber broadband service available to public schools and 650 homes and businesses in the small city. The bulk of the financing—$420,000—is being provided by Windstream. The balance is coming from the Throckmorton Collegiate Independent School District’s operating budget ($20,000), the City of Throckmorton ($70,000) and Throckmorton County ($70,000).

President Joe Biden renewed our commitment to enhancing our partnership with the Pacific Islands, and the respective governments, to achieve our shared vision for a resilient Pacific region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity, where individuals can reach their potential, the environment can thrive, and democracy can flourish. President Biden announced a new slate of activities, including plans to work with Congress to request and provide nearly $200 million in funding. The President announced plans to expand the U.S.

Mediacom has completed a fiber-optic network expansion in rural Truesdale (IA), delivering phone plans and download speeds of up to 2 Gbps with a focus on low-cost accessibility. Truesdale is the tenth community that Mediacom, the fifth largest cable operator in the US, has constructed through collaboration with the Empower Iowa Rural Broadband Grant Program. The operator has expanded its fiber network to over 1,400 locations in rural Iowa through that public-private partnership.

Anna Gomez is the newest, and fifth, Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. This may allow the FCC to pursue a Democratic agenda to tackle various issues:

Governor Laura Kelly (D-KS) alongside the Kansas Infrastructure Hub (KIH), launched the Build Kansas Fund, which provides state matching dollars to Kansas communities for infrastructure projects approved under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The Build Kansas Fund will invest $200 million directly into Kansas communities to support projects that include broadband, water, transportation, energy, and cybersecurity through Fiscal Year 2027. Eligible entities include Kansas state agencies, counties, municipalities, special districts, community organizations, nonprofits, and fe

The digital divide is multi-faceted and currently there is no single set of instructions for how it can be closed. Broadly speaking, there are at least two main reasons why a location may not have high-speed internet: 1) Infrastructure deficiencies, meaning either the complete absence of infrastructure, or the present infrastructure is insufficient for delivering broadband speeds and 2) the proper infrastructure is present, but there is a lack of adoption from the people who could theoretically take advantage of it.

Tachus Fiber, with help from private equity partner Crosstimbers Capital Group, is set to spend $100 million to expand its footprint in the Houston (TX) metropolitan area. The company has the aim of adding 100,000 passings in southwest Houston by the end of 2025.